Lossless Claw: Never Lose Context Again

Every LLM has a context window — a maximum number of tokens it can process. When a conversation exceeds this limit, most agents simply truncate older messages. Lossless Claw replaces truncation with a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) summarization system that preserves every message while keeping active context within model token limits.

What You’ll Learn

• Why context loss happens and why it matters
• How LCM (Lossless Context Management) preserves every message
• Step-by-step installation and configuration
• Best practices for long-lived agent sessions

The Problem: Context Loss

When context exceeds the token limit:

[message 1] [message 2] ... [message 150]
                    ↓ Context window exceeded
[message 120] [message 121] ... [message 150]  ← First 119 messages LOST

What you lose:

• Earlier instruction context
• Decisions made at session start
• Tool outputs and results
• The “why” behind current work

The Solution: Lossless Context Management

Lossless Claw preserves every message through hierarchical summarization:

[raw messages 1-8]    → leaf_summary_1
[raw messages 9-16]   → leaf_summary_2
...
[leaf_summary_1-4]    → condensed_summary

Raw messages are never deleted — they’re stored in SQLite and linked to summaries. Agents can drill down through the DAG to recover any original message using lcm_grep, lcm_describe, or lcm_expand.

Key Benefits

Installation

Prerequisites

• OpenClaw with plugin context engine support
• Node.js 22+
• LLM provider configured

Install via OpenClaw CLI

openclaw plugins install @martian-engineering/lossless-claw

Restart Gateway

openclaw gateway restart

Configuration

Basic Configuration

Add to your ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "allow": ["lossless-claw"],
    "slots": {
      "contextEngine": "lossless-claw"
    },
    "entries": {
      "lossless-claw": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "freshTailCount": 64,
          "contextThreshold": 0.70,
          "incrementalMaxDepth": -1
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Key Settings Explained

Cost Optimization

Summaries don’t need top-tier reasoning. Use a cheaper model for compaction:

# Add to ~/.openclaw/.env
LCM_SUMMARY_MODEL=ollama-cloud/glm-5
LCM_SUMMARY_PROVIDER=ollama-cloud

This uses GLM-5 for summarization while your main conversation uses a more capable model.

Extend Session Lifetime

LCM preserves context, but OpenClaw still resets sessions. Extend the idle timeout:

{
  "session": {
    "reset": {
      "mode": "idle",
      "idleMinutes": 10080
    }
  }
}

Common values:

• 1440 = 1 day
• 10080 = 7 days
• 43200 = 30 days

Agent Tools

LCM provides three tools for agents to recall compacted history:

lcm_grep

Search across all messages and summaries:

lcm_grep(query: "kubernetes", mode: "regex", allConversations: true)

lcm_describe

Get details about a specific summary:

lcm_describe(id: "sum_abc123")

lcm_expand

Drill down into a summary to recover original messages:

lcm_expand(summaryIds: ["sum_abc123"], includeMessages: true)

Storage

Database Location

~/.openclaw/lcm.db

Size Considerations

• Every message is stored
• SQLite database grows linearly
• No built-in pruning (manual cleanup available via TUI)

Backup

# Simple backup
cp ~/.openclaw/lcm.db ~/.openclaw/lcm.db.backup

Best Practices

1. Set freshTailCount appropriately - Higher values protect more recent context at cost of earlier compaction
2. Use cost-effective summary models - GLM-5, local Ollama models
3. Monitor database size - Check ~/.openclaw/lcm.db periodically
4. Extend session lifetime - Match idleMinutes to your work patterns
5. Test with long sessions - Verify compaction behavior before production

Comparison to Alternatives

Common Issues

Plugin not loading

[plugins.allow is empty; discovered non-bundled plugins may auto-load

Fix: Add explicit allowlist:

{
  "plugins": {
    "allow": ["lossless-claw"]
  }
}

Summarization failing

Check your LLM provider configuration:

openclaw models list

Database locked

Close any database viewers and restart gateway:

openclaw gateway restart

Rollback

To disable LCM:

{
  "plugins": {
    "slots": {},
    "entries": {
      "lossless-claw": {
        "enabled": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Then restart gateway. Your lcm.db is preserved.

Resources

• Lossless Claw GitHub
• LCM Paper
• Animated Visualization
• Configuration Guide

Next Steps

1. Install and configure (above)
2. Run a long session (2+ hours)
3. Use lcm_grep "topic" to test recall
4. Check ~/.openclaw/lcm.db size after heavy use
5. Adjust contextThreshold and freshTailCount to taste

Now your agent never forgets. Because it doesn’t have to.